Pumpkin had his first soccer "game" on October 16. It was only maybe a month ago that Pumpkin understood the concept that he was supposed to use his feet to stop the ball as compared to full body tackles, so you can imagine what this first 'game' would be like. In a word, hysterical!! First the kids are broken up into 'teams' of about 17 kids each. Then the instructor drops the ball in the middle of the gym. . . and mass pandemonium ensues. It reminded me a lot of a litter of puppies (a large litter of puppies) fighting over a bone. So you'd have the person kicking the ball followed by this crush of arms and legs belonging to semi-clueless little kids (Their clue-level was directly related to their age.) Pumpkin would have done OK except he never got the idea behind "teams" or "teamwork"; consequently when he was lucky enough to out race everyone to the ball he would merrily continue to kick it whatever way it was currently heading. So here comes Pumpkin flying down the left flank, running madly toward his own goal! Then the only 2 kids that had any idea what the purpose was would begin screaming at him - No! Go the Other Way!! No! No! So I'm on the sideline nearly with tears streaming down my face saying, Pumpkin - Go the other way! It was outstanding!

On October 18 I got Precious's hair cut. It was neat long, and so wonderfully curly, but she was always getting it in her mouth, and it was a huge pain to brush (which she hated) and man would she get food and ketsup and syrup and just junk in it all the time. Last but not least, it was a Wednesday night, when Hubby has softball, so it was something to do with the kids that would keep them occupied that wouldn't require enormous amounts of brain power on my part. So we get there and I sign in, but I guess the woman overlooked the names because she called the woman after me. But then the next hairstylest also did it, so I jumped up and said, gosh, I think we were next because we were actually here before them. This would be no big deal, but as a result the woman who cut Precious's hair was not the one I always have cut Pumpkin's hair. At first I almost cried when I saw it - ouch are her bangs short! And the back was much shorter than I anticipated. However, the very next day was mass and then McDonalds. While at Micky D's we had our customary pancakes. . . and Guess What! She didn't get syrup all in her hair! So the cut's got an A+ for functionality. Actually, even though it is shorter I am now more likely to put it up, because now when I brush it there isn't knots (Or food particles) So her haircut it really starting to grow on me. Kathleen says it makes her eyes look much bigger. She reminds me a bit like an elf.

Funny story. Hubby comes home very late on Softball nights, so he didn't see Precious that night. The next morning as he was walking out the door I warned him that Precious's hair was very short and not to be too shocked when he saw her that evening after work. Well, it was a gorgeous day out, so we are all running around outside. Precious is sitting on the kiddie scooter (which Pumpkin loved as a 2-year-old, but of course Precious has never used, because she wants to be just like Pumpkin and therefore will only push herself along on the bigwheel.) Anyway, Precious is on this thing and Pumpkin is running behind her pushing her. Wow were they having a blast --- until they hit a bump where Pumpkin and the scooter promptly stopped and Precious kept going, right over the handlebars. Ouch! Boy did she bash her face in! So she looks like Rudolf the red nosed kiddo! And she has scratches on one side of her face. To make this EVEN more amusing -- well, like 2 weeks ago we were in the children's resale shop and they have a plastic play house for the little kids. Precious being Precious, she got half stuck in the window of this thing and then flipped out and landed nose first on the carpet. (I actually thought it was hilarious. This other set of parents - they only had one child, so they had time to care - oh they just hovered over Precious ohhing and awwing and such. Meanwhile, I'm like. Sweetie, this is why most people use the doors.) Anyway, after that little encounter she had rug burn on her nose. And Hubby, being a goof ball, taught her how to put a Band-Aid on it. So she looks like a little football player and sounds like Elmer Fudd. Well, no sooner had she bashed her nose in again then she takes it to heart that she simply MUST have a Band-Aid on her nose (again.) Consequently, when Hubby got home that night, he was too busy wondering what happened to her face to care about her hair.

Stealth Baby is now mobile! As in seriously mobile. Monday October 27 he decided he was ready to go, and it's off to the races! He went directly from "rocking" to "going from room to room." (He fell down the stairs exactly 1 week later. Sigh) It was funny, at first he was kind of like a bucking bronco - he'd 'hop', almost like he was throwing both arms out at the same time, and then 'hopping' both knees up, then hopping his arms out - like a bunny hopping. But he's already figured out how to do the one arm one knee at a time thing. And I want to repeat how fast he is! Every time I turn around he's got something in his mouth! Usually paper. Eight million toys and he has to eat a discarded kleenex! And he wants to move constantly, wriggles in my arms, barely stops long enough to nurse. So he's a bit of a pain at the moment. Not that he still isn't a great kid - but he wants to see the whole world all at once! And he's now able to follow me from room to room, which I keep forgetting. IE that's how he fell down the stairs. I forgot I had taken him out of his high chair and I took the other two kids downstairs. Then before I went to get Stealth Baby I decided to blow Precious's nose. And then Bump Bump Bump! Stealth Baby, my faithful companion, head first down the stairs in his attempt to follow me. He is like a dog. If he's downstairs and I go upstairs to get a drink or something, I'll hear him lightly whining - and there he'll be sprawled at the bottom of the stairs trying to grasp how I got up them.

Of course, the true negative to this is he is already driving Precious and Pumpkin nuts. It seems they are used to each other touching each other's things. But Stealth Baby is a whole new ball game - and he doesn't react properly! Like, when he grabs on of Pumpkin's cars (well, the first thing he does is stick it in his mouth, which alone drives Pumpkin bonkers), but, as I was saying - he'll grab one of Pumpkin's cars so Pumpkin will howl "Noooooooo!" and take it away. But instead of coming crying to me like Precious does, Stealth Baby just keeps on motoring; continuing to crawl over any obstacle in his path, including Pumpkin's legs. So little by little as Pumpkin hordes his cars and tries to keep them away from Stealth Baby, Stealth Baby actually backs Pumpkin out of the room and down the hallway. Same deal with Precious - she wants to be the only one on my lap with a story book. But here comes Stealth Baby crawling on my legs with no concept of rejection (in less I put him down when he's hungry - you've never heard such indignant screams!) ignoring all her protests.

And I keep forgetting how messy the older children are! Stealth Baby manages to inhale more . . . 'stuff' then any baby I know! Candy wrappers, raisons, wood chips, gravel from the playground, oh the list goes on. Our cleaning lady does a great job cleaning every Monday - but there is still so many little hazards on our floors after a fun day of playing. And we're not even talking about the obvious things like crayon parts or lose change. What it is with babies and paper products anyway?

Another really neat thing - ok, actually it's pretty annoying, but it was neat to be there the first time - but anyways, Stealth Baby now gets on his back legs to reach things. Ok, actually it's a disaster! Sat. morning the 28th the whole family is down in the living room complete with several mugs of hot coffee. And you could just see - literally see! - the light bulb go off in Stealth Baby's head! So he gets up on his haunches, lurches against the coffee table and quick as a flash surveys this new territory and grabs the most dangerous thing there (Isn't nature amazing like that?) Except he misjudges and grabbed the pen - which he promptly tried to stick in his mouth, but at 7 mos. his aim is poor so instead he nearly sticks it in his eye and I take that away from him, and as I'm trying to keep the pen away from him he starts swiping at hot coffee, which now must be outlawed when he's around. So my descent into hell has started. And if he finds one more God knows what to shove in his mouth I will just scream. So he now knows he can pull up on things and fling video tapes all the floor and if you pull on the bottom drawer long enough it will open and then you can also pull out all mommy's clean, newly folded, t-shirts and, after wadding each of them in a slobber filled mouth, and spread them around the floor so you can burp on them. And this gets mommy's 100 % attention.

A final thought on Stealth Baby - he already likes to feed himself. Boy does he EAT!! He can eat nearly a whole sweet potato by himself! I cook it so it's nice a soft and then cut it up into chunks for him. He really seems to enjoy the process of sticking things in his mouth more then me feeding him. Of course, it always looks like he's eaten so much until you look at the floor. In the mornings I'll make him oatmeal mash - rolled oats, nonfat dry milk, water and bananas. He seems to like it. The other day at daycare he ate like a full cup of this stuff and then had peas for lunch. So he can chow. He's huge, HUGE! Thankfully Kathleen has lent us a lot of Nick's 24 months stuff or I would go nuts. He's bigger than all of Pumpkin's 18 month stuff and even snaps the buttons off some of the 24 months stuff. And he's only 8 months next week! And maybe 4 pounds less than Precious? No lie, the other day I had both Precious and Stealth Baby in the shopping cart together and someone asked me if I had twins.

On the afternoon of Sat. the 28th was the Prince William County Pumpkin fest. Boy was that fun! They hold it at the county stadium and it's 6 dollars per child. People wear costumes - even parents - and they have costumed characters there. Right off the bat as you walked in was a petting zoo. They had 2 buckets of feed, so Pumpkin grabbed big handfuls to give to the lama. Even Precious was willing to pet it if Hubby held her. So they let little kids inside a little fenced in area to pet the chickens and a baby cow and such. Next, we had to go and hug Tigger and Pooh Bear. Actually, this is all Precious ever wanted to do! So Hubby and Precious spent a lot of time following those poor characters about. There was a DJ playing cute kiddie songs, and Tigger would 'bounce' up and down, so then all the kids clusters around his feet would start to dance. It was really precious. Pumpkin got to ride the pony, which I think he really enjoyed. Precious wouldn't have anything to do with it. (She is in a serious "no" stage. Serious.) I wanted her to go on this tiny cart pulled by a donkey - a donkey smaller than Zena mom's evil dog, by the way. Also there was this blow up airplane. Like, you know how they have those blow up tents that you bounce in? This was an airplane. Being dumb we let Precious go in there with Pumpkin. Except Pumpkin could figure how to come out (so then he wouldn't) while Precious had no idea what was going on. And Hubby and I are on the outside saying, "Pumpkin, get Precious and come on out." So I'm sure we looked pretty stupid to the other parents. But the kids were very happy. I guess Precious figured that we wouldn't leave as long as Pumpkin was in this thing with her, so just to enjoy running around in the grass without shoes on. Next was a blow up slide. I'm not kidding - the slide itself was of the big, plastic, blow up variety. Again the kids have to take their shoes off (yippee) So Pumpkin scampers up this thing like a monkey. Precious is not so lucky. Actually, mommy is not so lucky. SO I'm attempting to haul Precious's round butt up very steep (slippery) plastic slope. It's not stairs, but a slope with plastic 'rungs'. And I'm not only about killing myself, but I've got one hand firmly placed on Precious's behind pushing her up. I finally took my socks off too to get more traction. I'm huffing and panting as I got to the top, and the guy up there looks at me with true pity and says, "You ok?" Gack. So then I sit on a garbage bag and am flung down the slide - except there is no landing at the bottom - what you do is bounce off a blow-up wall. Can I just tell you the kids loved it! Next Pumpkin took part in a 'treasure' hunt by which they created a circle out of hay bales and threw hay on the ground. Throw candy on the hay, throw more hay on the ground. Let a million little kids age 2 to 4 loose in the circle. Precious was getting tired so we decided not to have her join the melee. Finally, to the pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins, then to the decorating tables. The decorating tables had paint, markers, glitter, and stickers. Precious at this point was tired and not into in - which is too bad because boy did I want to paint pumpkins! So I took Precious and Stealth Baby to the outfield part of the stadium and spread out a blanket (At this point everyone should be impressed that I am so "Mom" that I have a blanket to sit on. Yes, I am amazing.) So I rocked Precious in my arms while Stealth Baby crawled as far away as he could while I had a death grip on his one ankle and, when he got bored trying to pull out of my reach, shoved grass up his nose.

Tuesday was Halloween. Can I just tell you we had 10 carved pumpkins! 10! And then we had the 2 little pumpkins that were painted and glitter. Plus some gourds! Plus wooden ghost signs and 2 flags and 1 windsock. I just LOVE holiday stuff! I even have a Halloween table runner. I greatly enjoy decorating the house for things - mainly outside because the kids break things inside. Halloween was fun, but a bit of a let down after last year. Last year was just the best. Potomac Mills decided to give out candy on actual Halloween night, so we didn't go there this year. Bummer. Just to make sure I was in full stress mode, DC was total gridlock. Really. It took me over 2 hours to get home! I was totally freaking out! I left work at 4 thinking, incorrectly, that I would be home by 5 to feed the kids, coerce a reluctant Precious into a costume, photos while it was still light out, and then have the kids leave. NOT! I pulled in the driveway after 6 pm in the pitch dark with an enormous tension headache. Stealth Baby was screaming, Precious was fussy, and Pumpkin was wanting to leave with Kenny right now! Not a single photo. And no-way no-how was Precious going to be pleasant and put on anything resembling a costume. As a matter of fact, I think I'll just take of my shoes to spite you and be a piss ant. So there. And I also felt a little sick. So Hubby decided to take Pumpkin around with Kenny while I handed out candy with Precious. I have a costume too, and after the first group of kids came I was more in the Halloween spirit so I put it on. Hubby came back at some point to do something, and I was like, where is Pumpkin? And he said, "Oh, he's still with Pam and Kenny. I'm sure he'll be ok." And I was like, "did you happen to notice what she had in her hand?" And Hubby's like, "yeah, it's a enormous coffee mug." So I say, "Hubby, it's a bloody mary." So Hubby decided it was in our best interest if he continued to be an extra parental presence around the block with the boys. Boy did Pumpkin pull in a haul this year. He obviously had a great time. We had about 50 kids, most of them in neat costumes.